ur sails.'

'As soon as the dawn came we went through the empty island, starting the
wild goats that were there in flocks, and shooting them with our arrows.
We killed so many wild goats there that we had nine for each ship.
Afterwards we looked across to the land of the Cyclopes, and we heard
the sound of voices and saw the smoke of fires and heard the bleating of
flocks of sheep and goats.'

'I called my companions together and I said, "It would be well for some
of us to go to that other island. With my own ship and with the company
that is on it I shall go there. The rest of you abide here. I will find
out what manner of men live there, and whether they will treat us kindly
and give us gifts that are due to strangers--gifts of provisions for our
voyage."' E embarked and we came to the land. There was a cave near the
sea, and round the cave there were mighty flocks of sheep and goats. I
took twelve men with me and I left the rest to guard the ship. We went
into the cave and found no man there. There were baskets filled with
cheeses, and vessels of whey, and pails and bowls of milk. My men wanted
me to take some of the cheeses and drive off some of the lambs and kids
and come away. But this I would not do, for I would rather that he who
owned the stores would give us of his own free will the offerings that
were due to strangers.'

'While we were in the cave, he whose dwelling it was, returned to it. He
carried on his shoulder a great pile of wood for his fire. Never in our
lives did we see a creature so frightful as this Cyclops was. He was a
giant in size, and, what made him terrible to behold, he had but one
eye, and that single eye was in his forehead. He cast down on the ground
the pile of wood that he carried, making such a din that we fled in
terror into the corners and recesses of the cave. Next he drove his
flocks into the cave and began to milk his ewes and goats. And when he
had the flocks within, he took up a stone that not all our strengths
could move and set it as a door to the mouth of the cave.'

'The Cyclops kindled his fire, and when it blazed up he saw us in the
corners and recesses. He spoke to us. We knew not what he said, but our
hearts were shaken with terror at the sound of his deep voice.'

'I spoke to him saying that we were Agamemnon's men on our way home from
the taking of Priam's City, and I begged him to deal with us kindly, for
the sake of Zeus who is ever in the company of strangers a